Time of day announcing system



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mwSumG 93.3831 95 5 3 w R591 ES 000 through photographic Patented June 14, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ROBERT F. MASSONNEAU, or SCARSDALE, NEW YORK, ASSIGN'OR T0 BELL TELEPHONE LABORATORIES, INCORPORATED, on NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

TIME OF DAY ANNOUNCING SYSTEM.

Application filed January 12, 1931.

This invention relates to telephone exchange systems and more particularly to systems in which a subscriber by calling a particular line designation either by dialing as in machine switching systems, or by the aid of an operator as in manual systems, may obtain a connection with a central time announcing bureau from which at specified intervals announcements are made of the correct time of day. The object of the invention is to'enable time of day announcements to be broadcast elficiently to as many subscribers in an exchange area, or a plurality of exchange areas, as request the time of day at any period thereof.

I-Ieretofore it has been proposed to provide a time announcing mechanism for an oflice in which a plurality of subscribers lines terminate which may be automatically selected by any calling subscriber of the oflice through the dialing of a line designation set aside for that purpose. Upon the seizure of the announcing mechanism from one or a plurality of subscribers lines, the mechanism through phonographic means, for example,

as is disclosed in Patent No. 1,227,523, granted to J. G. Blessing on March 22, 1917, or sound producing means, for example, as shown in Patent No. 1,618,242, granted to G. K. Thompson on February 22, 1927, transmits automatically to the subscribers line the hour and minute of the time of day.

It has also been proposed to provide a special operators position in the exchange area which may be called either automatically or manually in the same manner as a call would be made to another subscribers line, the operator upon answering the call announcing to the calling subscriber the exact time of day.

Such systems when applied to a large exchange area require a plurality of time announcing bureaus to give adequate service and do not permit the centralization of the time service in a single operators position for enabling one operator to announce the time on all calls incoming from an extended area. In accordance with the present invention, one embodiment of which has been disclosed by way of example, a single time an- Serial No. 508,209.

nouncing bureau employing but a single operator may be reached from offices or exchanges within alarge area. For example, a time announcing bureau located in New York city might be employed for serving all of the exchange areas surrounding New York city within a radius of 300 miles, the distant exchange areas being connected to the time bureau over long distance trunk lines set aside for that purpose. Thus, when any subscriber 1n such an area desires the correct time it is only necessary for him to call a designated number, for example, Meridian 4000, whereupon if his line terminates in a manual exchange the operator will connect his line with a trunk extending directly, or through a distributing point to the time announcing bureau, or if his line terminates in a dial switching exchange, he will upon dialing the designated number become connected by automatic selector switches with a trunk extending to the time bureau either directly or'through an intermediate distributing center.

By suitably fanning out the trunk line terminating in the time announcing bureau through intermediate and local distribution centers it is possible to enable the operator at the bureau to simultaneously announce the time to any number of subscribers in an extended area who may at any moment be connected to the bureau for the purpose of receiving the time announcement. In order that the voice currents from the time announcing operators transmitter may be efficiently transmitted over such a network the present invention contemplates the employment of vacuum tube repeaters at the central time announcing bureau and at such intermediate and local distribution centers as may be necessary.

In general the system in accordance with the present invention functions as follows It will be assumed, for example, that a subscriber whose line terminates in a dial switching ofiice in Philadelphia desires the correct time and dials the designated number, Meridian 4000. In response to dialing, selector switches in the local oiiice in the Philadelphia exchange system will establish a connection with a. trunk terminating in a distribution we center local to the Philadelphia area and multiplied with other trunks extending to other oflices of the Philadelphia exchange and with other trunks extending to other exchanges in nearby communities to a toll trunk extending to an intermediate distributing center located, for example, in Trenton, N. J. This trunk at the Philadelphia distributing center would be provided with a one-way vacuum tube repeater for amplifying voice currents incoming thereto from the distributing center in Trenton. Also incoming to the distributing center in Trenton and multipled to the trunk extending to Philadelphia, other trunks would be provided extending to local distributing centers located, for example, at Atlantic City, N. J Easton, Pa.., etc. From this intermediate distributing center the multipled trunk would extend as a single trunk through a vacuum tube repeater to an outgoingdistributing point in New York city and thence to the central bureau, also equipped with a repeater. Thus, the Philadelphia subscriber by dialing the designated number becomes connected over the trunk network directly with the central bureau. At the same time other subscribers located in the areas surrounding the local distribution centers in Philadelphia, Atlantic City, Easton, etc. may be in direct connection with the central time bureau in New York city. Also from the outgoing distributing point in New York 'city other trunk networks may extend northward through intermediate distributing centers for serving northern New York and eastward for serving New England. Indeed it is conceivable that, with a single central time bureau located at some central point along the eastern seaboard, the entire eastern time zone might be served.

It is of course obvious that the system according to the present invention might be used to give service locally to a large metropolitan area such as New York city. In that case the oflices of the area would be'groiuped according to their location in the area into sections, each section-being served by a local distributing center, the local distributing centers being connected by trunks extending either directly to an outgoing distributing point associated with a centrally located bureau, or to the bureau through intermediate distributing centers.

At the time bureau, whenever a call or any number of simultaneous calls are incoming over the trunk line terminating therein, a calling lamp signal is given to the operator to advise her of that fact and a circuit is established which is effective, in combination with a clock circuit associated with the operators desk, during a 7 4: second interval prior to the next time announcement period, to cut through the circuits extending from the calling lines that may at the time be connected to the central bureau preparatory to transmitting the announcement. The clock circuit is arranged to indicate the hours, minutes and quarter minutes and just prior to the next quarter minute :period following the receipt of an incoming call, the operator is signaled to announce the time indicated by the clock. She then announces the time, for example, by saying, When you hear the tone signal it will be exactly 5 and minutes after 5 oclock. When this exact time is reached the clock circuit extinguishes the signal and transmits a tone signal to subscribers lines which are connected. to the central bureau. In this manner, the operator announces the time at one quarter minute intervals as long as the calling lamp at her position remains lighted.

In accordance with the present invention provision is made whereby the cutting through of a one-way voice transmission circuit from the central time bureau to a local office trunk line seized at the local office in which a calling line terminates is not effected at the local oliice trunk line until the clock circuit at the central bureau indicates a silent interval just preceding an announcement period. By thus synchronizing the cutting through of the transmission circuit with the clock the receipt of partial time announcements by calling subscribers is obviated.

Further provision is made whereby the re peaters used throughout the transmission network are arranged in duplicate so that if any repeater becomes defective it may be removed from service and service continued over the 100 alternate repeater. Provision is also made in the local trunk circui outgoing from any oflice and multipled at a local distributing center to atrunk extending toward the central time bureau for preventing cross talk from 195 one trunk circuit to another if one calling subscriber attempts to talk while the time announcements are being transmitted from the central bureau.

Other features disclosed and described 110 herein have been made the basis of other copending applications filed concurrently herewith. These applications are the application of H. G. W. Brown, Serial No. 508,207, the application of W. B. Prince, Serial No. 115 508,208 and the joint application of C. WV. Keckler and A. E. Hague, Serial No. 508,211.

A clearer conception of the scope and purpose of the invention will be obtained from a consideration of the following description 120 taken in connection with the attached drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 shows schematically a calling line, line finder and first and second selectors of a step-by-step type ofiice of a telephone ex- 125 change system and an outgoing trunk extending to a local distributing center, Fig. 2;

Figs. 2, 3 and 4 taken together show apparatus at a local distributing center. Fig. 2 shows an extension of the trunk of Fig. 1 ex .130 

